


observations and the drawings

by underwaternature



Series: Askr Anecdotes [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Friendship, Gen, no beta we die like men, rated for language bc apparently i can't not make characters swear, sorta. mostly unedited tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26072917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underwaternature/pseuds/underwaternature
Summary: Every once in a while, Kiran could be spotted with a sketchbook and pencil in hand, but no one really got to see what the products were. One day, Robin happens upon it.
Series: Askr Anecdotes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1892815
Kudos: 16





	observations and the drawings

The summoner could be a... handful, Robin would give her that. She was no means malicious or anything of the sort, but rather he'd put her towards the unpredictable category. She always seemed to be busying herself somewhere in Askr’s castle, thus making her hard to find sometimes. Not totally unlike him, he supposed. To Robin, her capabilities as a tactician were a pleasant surprise and ones that were appreciated among him and the other tacticians in the Order.

At the very least, he knew that Kiran took breaks—though he was willing to bet that one of the Askr siblings or the commander had something to do with them. She was friendly enough, always willing to talk to Heroes whenever she could, even if she did seem somewhat nervous all the same. Kiran wasn’t a social butterfly at all, but her presence was appreciated, including by himself. There was little reason to not like her, really.

Even so…

Robin had a feeling that he shouldn’t be doing this, but his curiosity ate at him all the same. He had only come back to the war room to find some books the commander had mistakenly left behind; an atlas, couple on tactics, pretty sure there was a checkbook in there too amusingly enough—those sorts of things. What he _also_ found, however, was a faded green sketchbook bound together by rings, the name _Kiran_ scrawled on the cover in dark letters.

It had been sitting on one of the corners of the table, stacked on top of by actual books of information and hidden from clear view. Kiran was here this morning with him and the others. It was entirely possible she put it there by mistake and left without it—Robin assumed that was the case anyway. He already had everything he had asked to gather, and he could leave right now if he wanted to.

Nonetheless, the sketchbook made him hesitate. It’d be rude to look into it without permission, right?

But he _was_ alone at the moment, and it would probably be best to take it back to Anna so she can return to Kiran. One peek wouldn’t hurt. He could apologize later.

Ah, fuck it.

Lifting the cover up and over, Robin first found the first page blank aside from a small line of text at the bottom that detailed the purchase of the item. He hummed. Not the weirdest thing in the world, at least. He turned to the next page.

He recognized the first few drawings—the gardens, courtyard, dining hall—more or less places many would frequent on a day to day basis. Robin vaguely remembered Kiran carrying the same sketchbook to these places well; it was no secret that she was an artist, but she’d always shy away from sharing what she’d create. Most wouldn’t push it, but he also knew others would be more persistent.

As he turned more pages, the sketches of scenery soon become sketches of people.

The artstyle became more defined and cleaner the more he flipped through, but it was easy to attach a name to nearly every face he saw. Chrom, Lissa, Lucina… There were also other Heroes like Celica, Roy, Corrin, and even the Hero-King as well. From the look of it, they were almost all as though they were in motion, like in a sparring match or in battle. Others were simpler in composition, likely created during their downtime. Honestly, there were a lot more pieces than he expected. He turned the page and—

Oh.

He was in here too.

Robin couldn’t help but feel somewhat in awe and slightly embarrassed as he stared at the drawing in front of him. It was him on the page, no doubt about it—the cloak, the hair, and even his pose. Here, he was casting a thunder spell, his right hand outstretched in front of him and the other holding an open tome. His expression was determined, his eyes directed in front of him instead of at the viewer, with sparks crackling at his fingertips and a magic circle floating just in front of his hand.

The next drawing was also of him, but sitting down and reading a book in his lap. A part of him wondered where she was when she drew these, but she did have the habit of being in a lot of places throughout the day. He sat somewhere in the gardens, a flower bed behind him and a fountain just off the edge of the paper. Viewed from a side angle, his back was hunched and his legs were folded as he sat on the bench. He seemed to be immersed in whatever the book’s content were; and knowing him, it could’ve been a lot of things.

The third drawing actually caught him off-guard. Robin sputtered into his hand, just barely suppressing a full-on laugh as he turned away from the sketchbook. For this one, he remembered when it happened. Chrom wanted to spar with him, but with both of them using swords instead. Robin, who thought he could at least hold his own, ended up sprawled on the floor, exhausted and not willing to get up just as the sketch depicted. Chrom stood over him, his hands on his hips and bending over him with teasing smile on his face. Robin could practically hear his voice asking if he was okay, and him dryly remarking the contrary.

There was a even a small note at the corner of the page, something not many of the previous ones had. It simply said, _now we know why Robin’s more of a mage than a swordsman,_ and the man in question wheezed quietly.

Damn right.

After realizing that, yes, he had indeed reached the end of the sketches soon afterwards—it ended somewhere midway through the book, so Kiran still had time before she’d fill it up completely—Robin remembered why he was here. The commander and getting stuff for her? Yeah. Shit. Quickly making sure he had everything as well as picking up the sketchbook as well, since Commander Anna would probably have a better idea of where Kiran would be than him, and hurriedly went on his way.

Hopefully she wouldn’t start asking too many questions.

* * *

Making two rasps on the office door as he arrived, he could subtly hear whatever conversation inside quiet down for a moment before being called in with, “Come in.” Robin revealed himself as he opened the door, where inside of the room he saw Princess Sharena and the commander together.

“Oh, Robin!” Anna exclaimed, perking. She sat behind her desk, her arms folded on the desk. “I was wondering when you’d get back. Did something hold you up?”

“Something like that,” Robin replied, unsure of how to go about telling her what had happened. “Got the things you wanted, though. Here.”

“Ah, great! Thanks a bunch!”

He dropped the stack of books onto her desk, briefly counting that he didn’t happen to drop one for whatever reason and assuring to himself he didn’t. As she disassembled the stack and began flipping through the pages of one book, Robin glanced at Sharena again who was patiently waiting off to the side.

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, Commander, were you and Sharena talking about something before I came in?” Although their voices were muffled through the door, surely the princess came here for a reason.

Anna glanced up, and a small, sympathetic grin appeared on her face. “Oh, yeah, that. Kiran…”

“Kiran lost her sketchbook somewhere,” Sharena filled in, a similar look on her face as well. “She came to me during the lunch hour to ask if I had seen it, and when I told her that I didn’t she went off somewhere else. At the very least, she knows it’s not outside of the castle, but you know how she is. Bad habit of worrying and all.”

“Mhm. Bet she’s still looking for it right now,” Anna added. “If she still has trouble finding it tomorrow, Sharena and I are going to offer helping her out—Alfonse too, after we told him about it.”

Now’s probably a good time to speak up. “So, about that, uh…” Robin reached into his cloak and pulled out the item in question, his fingers clutching the spine of it, “...I kinda found it?”

He saw Anna blink in surprise and heard Sharena gasping excitedly and reaching out to take it from him, which he let her. “Oh,” the commander stated simply as Sharena not-so-discreetly went through it. “Problem solved, I guess?”

“I guess so,” Robin said, chuckling. “It was in the war room as I went to get the other things. Kiran must’ve left it there by mistake this morning.”

The look on Anna’s face turned to understanding as she nodded. “That makes sense. She does bring it with her almost everywhere, though I can’t imagine she’ll keep doing it after this.”

“But anyways, have you _seen_ her drawings, Robin?” Sharena asked, a big smile on her face. “They’re amazing! It’s a shame that she keeps it from everyone else, but I don’t blame her really. She’s not the type to want attention on her.”

“Er, I have, actually.”

Anna smirked. “Is this why you were held up from getting back here from the war room?”

“Maybe,” Robin countered, shooting a grin right back at her. “Jokes aside, however, I feel bad for looking through it without her permission. You sure she doesn’t mind you two looking in it at least?”

“Yep! She’s already shown us before, and even told us that we could ask to look through it if we were ever curious in the future,” Sharena answered. “If anything, she’d be embarrassed that you saw, maybe a little upset, but would never outright hate you for it. Like we said earlier, she doesn’t like the attention.”

“That’s more or less what I’d say as well,” Anna said. “But I’d also add that you should probably go out and tell her that you didn’t mean any harm too. People are allowed to be curious, and I’m sure she understands that. Still, let her know.”

He nodded, taking their words to heart. “I will, thank you.” He really didn’t want to make things awkward for Kiran the next time they meet.

“So, is that all? Or do you have some other lost items in that cloak of yours somewhere, hm?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t. And that’s more of a thing for the Byleths anyway. But yes, that’s all, Commander. I should be going now then, if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll be going as well. Someone has to take this back to Kiran, right?” Sharena held up the sketchbook, winking.

Anna smiled wryly. “Yes, yes, you’re both dismissed,” she told them, waving her hand as if shooing them away. “Don’t need either of you keeping me up for the rest of the evening.”

On that note, both the tactician and the princess made their leave. They exited through the office door, letting it close behind them with a soft click.

* * *

Oh, Kiran wished it didn’t have to be her.

Sure, Sharena coming by her room last night, Kiran’s lost sketchbook in hand and telling her that Robin had found it was _not_ the end of the world and Kiran knew that. She knew that Ylisse’s tactician was a good guy—hell, he was a favorite of hers when she played through Awakening back home—but oh boy!

She was feeling rather stressed! And unreasonably so in her opinion!

One of the things she, rather suddenly she might add, had to come to terms with when first arriving at Askr was that these fictional characters she knew for years from a franchise she loved a lot were now very much physical, interactable, and _real_. Being suddenly transported to another world—which essentially made her an _isekai_ protagonist, she had dryly realized a while back—was certainly not on top of her to-do list as a teenager, but all she could do was roll with the punches. At the very least, Kiran took some solace in the fact that the Askr siblings and Anna expressed guilt over it, and really it wasn’t as though any four of them had any real control over what Breidablik, the apparently not-gun relic, would do.

At any rate, she was just delaying the inevitable.

Kiran sighed and leaned back against the wall, the morning sunlight being shaded away from her eyes with her pulled up hood. Even at this hour there was activity in the courtyard—Heroes who liked to train and spar with one another while the morning was still fresh. She sat alone on the stone bench, her legs crossed at the ankles. There was no war meeting or anything like that, but her body’s alarm clock forced her awake anyway.

She supposed that’s what being a tactician to an entire order of soldiers did to you.

“Hey.”

Kiran turned her head to see Robin there, a smile on his face, if a touch apprehensive for whatever reason. Recalling that he was the one who had found her sketchbook in the war room, of all places to have forgotten it, she felt the back of her neck grow hot with embarrassment. 

“Uh, hey,” Kiran greeted back, putting on an awkward smile of her own. Honestly, she couldn’t think of the reason why he was here, aside from the obvious. There was no other way.

Robin glanced down at the empty space next to her, his way of asking if he could sit, and she nodded. He took his spot down on the bench, leaning forward and holding his hands together on his lap. Kiran reached up and grasped at the edges of her hood with her fingers, uncertain whether to take it off or leave it on at the moment.

“You can leave it on if you want,” Robin suddenly said, seeing what she was doing. “I don’t mind either way.” Nodding again, Kiran lowered her hands, instead tugging at her sleeves so that they covered her arms entirely.

There was a beat between them then. A bird chirped on a tree nearby. Wooden swords clanked together as two other Heroes sparred. An arrow embedded itself into a target off to the side. Neither of the two knew what to say, and frankly the growing silence could kill a man.

“So,” Kiran began.

“Yes?”

She resisted the urge to groan. Quite the conversationalist, Robin, but she wasn’t much better herself. “Was there, um, something you… needed…?”

“Hm. Not really, to be honest.” He scratched the back of his neck, seemingly trying to figure out what to say. “But I did want to…” he exhaled slowly, “...apologize.”

Her train of thought paused for a moment. “Apologize?” the summoner repeated. This was... “For what?”

“For—for looking into your sketchbook. Without permission, I mean.”

Kiran started rubbing her gloved fingers together, lowering her gaze down to her lap. She opened her mouth, and all that came out was, “...Oh.”

Being at a loss for words may be an understatement.

She could sense him wincing next to her at her lack of response. “...Are you mad?” he asked tentatively. “Upset?”

“I—” She forced herself to take a deep breath. “No, I’m—not mad. Nor upset.” She thought about it again. “Okay, maybe a little upset, but—god why is this so hard? Sorry, Robin. I’m just… bad at talking. Sorry.”

“I don’t mind.”

A part of her thanked the heavens that he had the patience to put up with her at the moment. Kiran took another deep breath and spoke.

“I… do feel somewhat upset that you looked in without my permission,” she started slowly, “but it’s mostly because—because it wasn’t on my own terms? If that makes sense? That’s more or less the main reason I feel this way. I don’t… really like showing my works to many people; even back home I only ever showed my close friends, really.”

Kiran heard Robin hum in acknowledgement. It prompted her to continue. “It’s fine if you’re curious, of course, but I would rather know that someone’s looking through my things. That and the fact that I’m always nervous about what other people would have to say. Just… ask, I guess.” Her voice got softer as she said the last part, and she hoped he was able to hear her anyhow.

The following pause made her worry that he didn’t after all, but she was soon put at ease when he said, “...Right.” Robin didn’t sound fully convinced, however, and Kiran exhaled slowly.

“I mean it, Robin,” she continued, now looking up at his face, which he returned. There was a small frown present that was tugging at the corners of his mouth. “You’re a good person, and I don't have much reason to believe you mean to do anything out of bad intentions and whatnot.”

He met her gaze and held it for a moment longer; Kiran could tell he was thinking her words over, turning them in his mind again and again. Finally, Robin sighed and broke their contact. “All right, I’ll… I’ll take your word for it,” he conceded quietly. There was another short pause before he spoke again. “So, I don’t mean to push but, does… this mean we’re good now?”

Kiran’s mouth quirked upward. “Yeah, we’re good,” she told him easily, and saw Robin’s posture shift into something more relaxed. She exhaled heavily too, and felt a weight in her melt away. God, she was never good in tense situations.

And, at any rate, this seemed like a good place to change topics anyway.

“Um… Have you gotten breakfast yet?”

“Not really, no. What, wanna go together?”

“Well, yeah. I mean,” Kiran gestured out to where they were—the courtyard, where Heroes commonly trained and sparred, “I don’t think you’d like getting your ass kicked first thing, you know?”

Robin let out a short laugh. “You got me there. Gods know that I don’t want Chrom to find me right now. You know how our last spar went.”

“And that I do,” Kiran said with a grin. She hopped off from the stone bench, swinging her legs as she did. “Come on, may as well get going now. Beat the rest to a good spot while we still can.”

Another sound of amusement. “As you wish.”

**Author's Note:**

> tbh i'm trying to get back into the groove of writing fanfics so i just wrote this on a whim and made myself finish it over a couple weeks lol think it turned out aight


End file.
